I would bring the 4.5, 5.3, and 5.7 sails with the 95 liter board for the ocean.

Sounds right to me. The wind will seem squirrely and wierd compared to the gorge, especially around the impact zone, so rig a size bigger than what you would rig in the gorge. Also, don't sail anywhere with rocks downwind, the southbound current will have you downwind faster than you would believe unless you are well powered up (until you know the tricks to staying upwind).

If you haven't already, join the PDXWindsurfer yahoo group and read the Oregon Coast Wavesailing Guide they have in the files section. Full of good advice from coast regulars, it got me through my first few times on the coast.

I just submitted to join. I survived an eastwind 30+ day in stevenson without walking too faar, so hopefully I wont have too long of a walk on the beach

All good info. With the wind and waves generally going the same direction, the walk back up the beach is fairly common. This year I've found the iWindsurf forecast to be pretty accurate for wind at the north/central coast. Check out magicseaweed.com for swell forecast on the OR coast.

Ideally you want anything smaller than 6 feet with intervals over 10 seconds though smaller waves and closer intervals are doable. Sit and watch the waves and wind for a while before you go out and try to figure out the rhythm. Waves come in sets (usually 4-5 waves) with a lull between sets. You want to try to time getting out during the lull. There's several good dvds for beginning wavesailing if you're interested.

Cool, I checked out the coast report and will be absorbing winner to wavesailer this week. Has anyone ever sailed gleneden beach? Its sandy for a mile south, and it will be right in our backyard so it would be very convenient.

I survived an eastwind 30+ day in stevenson without walking too faar, so hopefully I wont have too long of a walk on the beach

Good luck with that. You WILL walk the beach, because the rip current is powerful and flows with the wind, the winds are very unsteady, and the water is infinitely rougher than the lake you usually sail in. Overrig board, sail, and fin, walk way upwind to launch, and expect to spend as much time walking as sailing. After decades of sailing almost everything the Gorge can deliver, I have nothing but respect, admiration, envy, awe, and incomprehension for/at/of how anyone windsurfs the OR coast. When it's moderately windy, say 5.0, it can make a full-nuke Gorge day seem like beginner conditions by comparison. Of my 20-something coast trips, I was able to stay upwind on two of them. One was so GD windy (full-on rock solid 2.8 from the dunes to miles offshore) that it was challenging to go downwind (that alone made it my best coast trip yet). The other was my first coast trip, a mellow but consistent (thus I could stay upwind) 5.2 day with fog all the way to the coastal highway all day.

A little grommet named Chris Wyman asked me in about 1990 why I didn't go down the line instead of offshore. I said something like, "I can't stay upwind even beam reaching. No way I'm pointing south."

Wear welder's goggles. You sail out looking DIRECTLY into the low afternoon sun, so even 12-foot incoming swell is not detectable past 2-3 PM ... when the wind starts. Basically, you can't see SHIT going out. (Excuse the language, but "$#!+" doesn't begin to convey the problem.) I have never found a solution to fogged-up eyewear there.

WHEN ... not IF ... you walk back upwind, I've found two solutions for us mortals who haven't learned how to balance everything on top of their heads when walking 500 yards directly into 30-mph headwinds:
1. Grab your back footstrap in your right hand and walk north. (That's the entire instruction manual; ignore everything else and just walk.)
2. If the shorebreak is mild or 100 feet offshore and the bottom is sand, walk back upwind in knee-deep water holding just your rig while the board floats beside you in your lee.

Now how do you enjoy that? BELIEVE IT, expect to have your ass handed to you, prepare yourself mentally for it, and enjoy the hell out of it when it doesn't turn out that badly. If you go there expecting a walk in the park like a routine 40-kt stormy day in the corridor, you'll get overwhelmed if you do find some wind.

If you're powered up going out and the wind isn't too onshore you should have no problem staying upwind. I've sailed the north/central coast regularly the last 2 years and have only had problems staying upwind when the wind was too onshore. Manzanita is famous for this so I don't recommend it. Roads End at Lincoln City can be good if there's wind and it's usually not too onshore. My general rule is not to go farther down wind than I am willing to walk back. When I'm powered up and can go upwind then I don't even worry about it. My experience has been that the wind at the coast is usually more consistent than at the Gorge. You just need more of it because there's a lot of water moving around out there.

Most of my OR coast sailing has been at Newport/Agate Beach, where the wind is SS to side-on but varies dramatically both from the beach to the impact zone to outside and in each of those zones. Even though I was on a bigger sail than the experienced wave sailors, the locals (plus Karnazes and grommets Wyman and the Pritchards) had no problem getting back upwind after going DTL ... something about backside, or surfside, or frontback ... some such surferdude jargon.

Is Agate's wind uniquely inconsistent among north coast spots, or have I just had bad luck with the wind on 90% of my coast trips, including Florence and Pistol?

I survived an eastwind 30+ day in stevenson without walking too faar, so hopefully I wont have too long of a walk on the beach

Good luck with that. You WILL walk the beach, because the rip current is powerful and flows with the wind, the winds are very unsteady, and the water is infinitely rougher than the lake you usually sail in. Overrig board, sail, and fin, walk way upwind to launch, and expect to spend as much time walking as sailing. After decades of sailing almost everything the Gorge can deliver, I have nothing but respect, admiration, envy, awe, and incomprehension for/at/of how anyone windsurfs the OR coast. When it's moderately windy, say 5.0, it can make a full-nuke Gorge day seem like beginner conditions by comparison. Of my 20-something coast trips, I was able to stay upwind on two of them. One was so GD windy (full-on rock solid 2.8 from the dunes to miles offshore) that it was challenging to go downwind (that alone made it my best coast trip yet). The other was my first coast trip, a mellow but consistent (thus I could stay upwind) 5.2 day with fog all the way to the coastal highway all day.

A little grommet named Chris Wyman asked me in about 1990 why I didn't go down the line instead of offshore. I said something like, "I can't stay upwind even beam reaching. No way I'm pointing south."

Wear welder's goggles. You sail out looking DIRECTLY into the low afternoon sun, so even 12-foot incoming swell is not detectable past 2-3 PM ... when the wind starts. Basically, you can't see SHIT going out. (Excuse the language, but "$#!+" doesn't begin to convey the problem.) I have never found a solution to fogged-up eyewear there.

WHEN ... not IF ... you walk back upwind, I've found two solutions for us mortals who haven't learned how to balance everything on top of their heads when walking 500 yards directly into 30-mph headwinds:
1. Grab your back footstrap in your right hand and walk north. (That's the entire instruction manual; ignore everything else and just walk.)
2. If the shorebreak is mild or 100 feet offshore and the bottom is sand, walk back upwind in knee-deep water holding just your rig while the board floats beside you in your lee.

Now how do you enjoy that? BELIEVE IT, expect to have your ass handed to you, prepare yourself mentally for it, and enjoy the hell out of it when it doesn't turn out that badly. If you go there expecting a walk in the park like a routine 40-kt stormy day in the corridor, you'll get overwhelmed if you do find some wind.

Enjoy!

I fully count on getting pounded and walking plenty. Not to imply that an east wind day is the same, but there are some similarities. Im hoping for knee high waves with long periods and 6.8 winds to get a feel for it. It looks like a mild week so I can always hope But rest assured that the ocean scares me far to much to get into anything to serious. Just the thought of sailing past the breakers without a lot of people already being there is kind of creepy. The gleneden wave report says " watch out for rips and sharks" so I may stick to roads end and chat with any kiteboarders/windsurfers there and let them know to stay well clear

Check out Roads End beach just north of Lincoln City. Your best bet for the best wind. Usually too light nad not sailable at Gleneden. Will be 10-15 mph or more at Roads End. I have a house there and been saining the area fir years. Yes alot of kiters but on a normal day most of them are quite good in the waves. Otherwise you should look south . Newport Jetty or even Florence Jetty (90 min drive from Gleneden) I'll be down there this weekend and will sail Roads End if it happens so might see you.....

Check out Roads End beach just north of Lincoln City. Your best bet for the best wind. Usually too light nad not sailable at Gleneden. Will be 10-15 mph or more at Roads End. I have a house there and been saining the area fir years. Yes alot of kiters but on a normal day most of them are quite good in the waves. Otherwise you should look south . Newport Jetty or even Florence Jetty (90 min drive from Gleneden) I'll be down there this weekend and will sail Roads End if it happens so might see you.....

Sounds good, im trying to get an experienced friend to come along and show me how to do it for part of the stay. If we head to roads end I should be easy to spot, my quatro is nice and ugly and hard to miss, with its super speedy thin sanded ninja turtle paint job (its the blue ninja turtle)and white footstraps.

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